A Dryad's Daughter
by Wolf of Sahara
Summary: [WC3] Opens right after human and orcs landed on Kalimdor. How the following string of events looked like from a dryad and a girl's position, and how life might'be changed to be in the new world for these races after eternity's end.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I WISH I own all of Blizzard, but I don't. Not a jot. So don't sue.  
  
Where Are You From?  
  
Juillas the Dryad kicked open the arrow-struck wooden doors with ferocity of battle. Her spear was raised and readied, but she stopped in mid motion as if what fell was a freezer's gate. "Oh!" she exclaimed. Her torso drew back, her silver eyes flicked, and her hooves clattered back and forth on the ground. "You're just a child!"  
  
A girl of about twelve cowered in front of her, trying with all her might to merge with the shelf behind her. She stared wide-eyed and gaped with trembling lips, but couldn't make a sound. At her foot was a tin can of preserved beans. A spear-pierced footman slumped besides the fallen door to that storage. He has been dead since yesterday. Juillas shifted her weight. She lowered her spear, and turned to leave. The stone corridor was stained with deaths. That battle was already over the night before, when they launched a cloaked ambush. She was just there as a scout, or janitor, to 'clean up' the place. Roughly an hour ago she had just heard echoes of metallic encounters, meaning her fellow night elves were doing their jobs. They were there not just to capture hiding enemies, but also to raid the stronghold of what usable supplies it held for the humans. After her sisters and her had made sure the corridors were safe, the sturdy druid of bears would be coming in to empty all the storage rooms, like this one. Therefore it was also her duty to report where storages were.  
  
Why is there a child in a fortress? Juillas wondered. There were no women here, only men. This was not a refugee camp. Should I take her to The Priestess? What will The Priestess do with her? She stopped in mid track along with her chain of thoughts. The night elves never took prisoners. They either killed all their enemies, or they simply struck and ran, leaving their crushed enemies in confusion. She turned back. The girl was no longer in the small storage. She was sure she didn't hear the child running down the stone corridor, but she saw none of her in that eight-by- six windowless cell either. She decided to check behind the barrels that stood on either sides of the center shelf. Nothing here. Her keen elf ear, however, picked up the whisper of fabrics. She jerked her head back up to catch the girl emerging from the other side. As soon as she was seen, the girl broke into a desperate dash for outside. Two quick hops from the dryad brought her to the girl, and one scoop of arm had her caught, wriggling and wailing like a piglet. What a handful!  
  
"Calm down now," Juillas said, "I won't hurt you." Instead, the child bailed louder, making her sensitive elf ear hurt. She carried her out to her camp, and met two archers on the way, apparently lured by the echoing wailings.  
  
"What's this?" both of them smiled when they saw the noise maker, "Are you siding with the humans now?"  
  
Juillas knew them both. It was hard to not know any one of their own when they all stay around forever. Dulinn and Merilin, they were sisters. Merilin spoke first, then Dulinn, as she always did, followed up immediately, "Or maybe you want a bit of what they called 'motherhood'?"  
  
"That," Juillas said, "will be decided by the Priestess." The child had miraculously stopped screaming her lungs out. Perhaps the increase in the number of the enemy of her people had frightened her too much. Merilin had leaned closer to inspect the child, who noticeably shrunk into herself in Juillas' arm. Dulinn whacked her older sister on the head with her bow and ushered her off to work.  
  
Outside the human fortress was a temporary night elf camp looming in the moonlight. What humans did not die in battle had fled and abandoned this establishment with their leading Paladin. Juillas was still perplexed by the fact that these humans were aided by their light-skinned cousins. She didn't hate the humans, but she disliked them alright, for setting foot in her home and causing nothing but destruction. Who did they think they were?! And here she was, holding a human child, who was trying to free herself again.  
  
Several other night elves weaved across Juillas' path, and some closer ones paused to greet her. At the far end of her vision, resting atop the Altar of Elders, was their silver-haired Priestess, Mira Whitemane, with her favored tiger resting besides her. The Priestess looked up when she noticed Juillas approaching her, and sat up completely when she realized what the dryad was carrying in her arm. She waited for Juillas to explain herself.  
  
Juillas bowed (or as much as a half-faun could without tipping over) respectfully, and set the child down, but keeping a hand on her shoulder. "Priestess Whitemane, I discovered her in one of the basement storages. What should be done?" she said. The Priestess looked at the tense but shaking human child for a long time, her hand went absentmindedly to the back of the tiger's ears. At that the child cried out and broke from Juillas' grip. She must had thought the Priestess was about to send the tiger to eat her. Juillas quickly hopped, dropping her spear in the process, and caught the child again in both of her arms. Her Priestess was amused by this. "I apologize, Priestess. I was carele-ow!" she cried when the child grabbed her right ear and yanked it. She set down the child and planted two firm hands on her shoulder.  
  
"Dryad Juillas," the Priestess said, "What would you do with this human?"  
  
"I-I don't know," Juillas lied, "I brought her here for your instructions."  
  
The Priestess was no fool. "You know we don't take prisoners or hostages of any sort. There are no exceptions, and will not have. She has to be released into the forest, or killed..." she paused, examining the changes in Juillas' expression, "Unless you have another proposal."  
  
"Y-yes, Priestess, if I may, "Have I gone insane? Juilllas thought, "I would like to keep...'adopt'...her." It wasn't unusual for a night elf to care for other species in their forests. Priestess Whitemane had already guessed what the dryad wanted to do with the human child. Of course a human was very much different than a furlog, but still. As ferocious as they were in battle, night elves cared a lot for living creatures, especially dryads, and they hate taking unnecessary lives.  
  
Priestess Whitemane smiled. "As in the humans' custom, Dryad Juillas?" she asked. She was interested in how her subordinate had picked up their enemies', "Where have you learned that word?"  
  
"Books, Priestess. Some of the human bases we raided had books. Most of them are on magic, but there are other ones. Weird ones too," Juillas replied hesitantly.  
  
"I see. Very well. You may...'adopt' this child," the Priestess said, "but remember that you will be fully responsible for all of her action from now on. Go report the locations of storages to Keeper Anubris"  
  
Juillas bowed again and thanked her Priestess. She picked up her spear and led the child away, who surprisingly followed her obediently away from the tiger. 


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: The usual. No own, no sue.  
  
*Note: Archer Dulinn's and Merilin's names are of Sindarin, created by J.R.R.  
Tolkien, both meaning 'nightingale'. Mira Whitemane and Anubris are both  
standard Blizzard names.*  
  
She woke up to a blue luminescent underground cave with thick roots veining out. When she sat up, leaves shuffled on the ground under the fur she lay atop on. Her lower back and neck were tired. Shimmering mushrooms grew in corners where the walls flatten out. A slope led to a slit of dark sky, and something glowing golden yellow faintly off the picture frame. For a moment she wondered if she was dreaming. She had been told to hide in that basement cell by her father. ...Her father! Then she remembered, the murmuring vibrations, the dark stone room, and shouting and shouting and screaming.... She was too afraid to even breathe too loudly. When silence took over again, she remained in the same pose she had been in.  
  
Her brother was the first to left home, beaming and laughing at his new promotion to captain. He came home somewhat less cheerful, and sent her to her bedroom. Something about the savages, the Orcs. In a week, he left again with their Prince, and never came back. Then the plague worsened, and ghosts and zombies began to come out at night. She was forbidden to go outside after dark, and could not set foot out side the town walls at all. Things seemed to get worse and worse. Her father took up his sword again, and, because there was no one else to look after her, took her with him to a castle. There she first learned to hide and be still while chaos raged outside. She was told there would be no more of this in the new land.  
  
She had never seen the faces of their new enemies in this new land. Her father kept her inside and underground all the time. And then that half-deer-half-human creature, their new enemy, caught her, and brought her to what seemed remotely like a circus. There were trained bears, panthers, tigers, birds, and half-animals. The people have elf ears, but looked like they'd been living underground, and somehow were able to be ghost-like at nigh while still being alive. She couldn't remember how many days had passed since she met the half-deer creature. The purple night rarely lighten up in the deeps of that forest, trapped beneath interlocking fans of leaves that would not had surprised her if they never wither.  
  
The half-deer must have brought her to her den in her sleep, and was no where in sight at the moment. The last thing she remembered was riding the creature away from her people's settlements with unseen movements and other beasts. To here, wherever here may be.  
  
She crawled gingerly up the short slope, trying not to make a sound. It opened up to a small clearing encaged by trees taller even than guard towers she had seen. Facing her, however, was one weird tree – gnarled, partially covered by autumn leaves, and had two lamps dangling off from two top branches on opposite sides. Unlike any tree she had ever seen before, for sure, and she couldn't stop herself from walking over to it - after looking around first, that was. Running her hands across the base of that ancient tree, she wondered why were its leaves colored wrongly? Was it dying?  
  
Suddenly, her ears picked up some commotions to her right. It got closer and closer within seconds, and caught her in the open, frozen like a hare. Four wolf riders with giant cleavers, accompanied by one shaman.  
  
They didn't expect to find a human, less to say a child, and it disrupted their formation. "Halt!" cried the leading raider.  
  
"Kill it?" another raider asked.  
  
"No time for games," the leader raider concluded, "Destroy the trees before we're surrounded, quickly!"  
  
At that the raiders charged past her toward the ancient tree, and started hacking at it with their knives while the shaman cast crazy spell on all of them. An owl fled the tree hooting angrily.  
  
Two golden orbs flickered and lit up on what now looked like the face of the ancient tree. The plant wriggled and freed itself from the ground, and started to smack at the raiders extra slowly, never quite catching any of them.  
  
Her legs gave in, and she trembled trying to move away from the mad raiders and walking tree. She bumped into something, and looked up to see the glowing eyes of the masked shaman. "You should be glad Hellscream isn't here to see you, or he'll make you his afternoon snack, hahahaha!" the orc roared, "Go on, run!"  
  
She obeyed and stumbled as fast as she could away from the orcs into darker parts of the woods. Suddenly she felt an electric current surging through her small body, numbing her muscles and almost fell to the ground. She could hear the roaring laughter of the shaman. It stopped short with a choked grunt, followed by a thud. She pulled her weakened head around to see the shaman fallen on his face with a dark arrow head sticking out from his throat. "Hold ground!" she heard the leading raider said, "There's only one of 'em, kill her!" There was another pained grunt and a yelp, and a female scream.  
  
"For Kalimdor!" a familiar voice cried.  
  
"Drawsh!" three wolf riders whipped their rides and fled swiftly.  
  
Juillas the Dryad charged in with Keeper Anubris, followed by three shadowy archers. The dryad hopped over and knelt down roughly on her knees. "Are you hurt?" the dryad asked.  
  
She shook her head slowly. The shock was still there. She also noticed a gored cut on the dryad's collar bone. The dryad collected her up in her arms and helped her climb onto her back. Not far away, the Keeper was summoning up a healing drizzle on an injured Dulinn.  
  
"Escort the Ancient to the Priestess, the rest of you," said the Keeper, "We need to draw back to the forest."  
  
With Juillas leading the way, she watched in little awe as the trees parted for the Ancient to pass. Her mind was too occupied by one thought: the orcs are here too. 


	3. Chapter 3

_Chpt03_

The news of the intruders first arrived a moon phrase ago, when the humans were spotted along the coastal areas by a pair of huntress out for vacation. They observed those people putting up farm after farm, then workshops, and, finally, barrack. There were men, women, children, and some elders. They watched the humans prepare arm forces, taking words from a frail girl whose face always concealed under the shadow of the hood of her cloak. They quietly retreated and disappeared when the humans started to deforest inland. Parted by a few days, news of another intruder – a different species – arrived at the night elf communities. The head priestesses of each community was notified by owls, and met to discuss this unusual surge of immigration. They sent out scouts to monitor the actions of these unwanted guests. The reaction among the priestesses ranged from amused curiosity to strong distaste, but all agreed the outlanders must be driven away when reports came back that the edge of Ashenvell forest was being chewed away carelessly by their foreign guests.

Meanwhile, the night elves began to locate and move their once scattered Ancients deeper into the forest and forming camps in anticipation of conflicts. Dryads, who were not born to do battle and hated killing more than any elf else, were often spared from the front line with the exception of one or two. Most of them escorted and guarded the Ancients as they migrate inland, and those were long, slow, but unbroken marches.

Juillas' party had gone all the way to the edge of the forest to escort a particularly curious Ancient of Wonder when they became engaged in battle with the humans. They marched mostly during the darker hours, while rested in temporary camps and taking cover from probing outsiders during the hot day. The thick foliage of the forest trapped rising hot air and moisture, putting stress on the night elves and pushing some towards their wilder side of selves. At their base camp weeks deep within the forest a stream rolled through the middle of the Ancients. It had a couple of brown bear heads sitting above its surface, as two druids of claw tried to cool themselves. Juillas and the human girl were sitting together against a gigantic tree, in a rare period of peace while chaos reigned outside these impenetrable woods. This was where the main force of the night elves had been amassing, readying to move out against their enemies. Loud calls of unknown creatures echoed within the woods, sounding omnipresent but fading in and out like the shimmering forest light. The girl watched in amusement Juillas' two large ears twitch and flap on their own to chase away small, flying insects, while the dryad thumbed through a book. _Love Love Paradise_ was on the book back, and the girl wondered if the dryad knew what she was reading. In their arduous and pressing exploration inland the human soldiers resorted to various form of entertainment to relieve their stress, and reading was very common. Beside the dryad was a small stack of books, and the girl picked one up to entertain herself. It was _Notes of Entomology_, one she already read when staying in that fortress.

The thought of that fortress inevitably cracked a fresh scar, and put in motion a new flow of heated thoughts. _What are these elf-like people? Where are they now? What happened to Dad's fortress? What happened to Dad?_ The girl was well aware of the brutal facts of war by then. It was like being carried down a rushing river on an oarl-ess boat, and she could barely see the shores behind the galloping waves. Guiltily she felt herself more concerned with keeping a good grip on her boat in that monstrous river, forced by the restless current, than the possible survival of her father. Yet… where was she to go now? As hard as she put her mind to work, she simply couldn't figure anything out besides following that half deer for the day. Then the next day. Then the next. She knew nothing, could do nothing, and had nothing. Nothing but the present waking hours, hanging close under the half deer's protection, despite the night elf possibly being her father's murderer. Juillas was her name, the girl thought. These dark elves spoke in their own languages. Whereas the "regular" elves sometimes could be seen in the streets of her hometown, she had never seen or heard about these ones before. They, however, apparently knew about her people and her language as a couple of them had tried to converse with her earlier. The girl, on the other hand, felt no desire to even make any sound, less to speak words. Presently the half deer noticed the girl reading as well, and asked, "What are you reading?"

The girl held up her book to Juillas. The half deer blinked her glowing eyes twice, and then chewed difficultly on the word, "An-TO-mo-lo-ji…? What's that?" The girl stared at the word. She wasn't sure if she knew how to explain it even if she would speak, so she picked up a spider from a nearby shrub, and showed it to the half deer. To their right was a huntress, her great panther lying on its back beside her, opened like a book. The huntress let out a laugh and said to the dryad in elvish, "Juillas, when will you learn not to waste breath the human? She won't answer you. She hasn't spoken an understandable word since she came!"

"But Nahele," the dryad replied, "she is listening."

"If it pleases you," Nahele shrugged, "But I must say you've chosen a troublesome one to care for."

The dryad remained silent. Her fellow night elves' had expressed doubt and sometimes discontent at her taking in the human girl. After all, they were not on good terms with these outlanders, and who could say the naïve child would not try to run back to her people with knowledge of the night elf bases? Juillas was smart enough to understand her sisters' misgiving, and felt a sense of responsibility to prevent that happening so she would not fail her Priestess' trust. In fact, the thought of running away had occurred to the girl, yet…. _Who will want to step out of line under the watch of _that _thing?_ The girl thought as a large shadow flowed over them. Thick, heavy splating sounds trailed the shadow, and the girl's book was obliterated by a large deposit of dark, red blood. Not far ahead, several archers hurried to clear some ground for the landing of two griffon-riders and a monstrous, two-headed dragon. The dragon thing was injured and in a bad mood. "Goodness!" the dryad said, staggering up on her fours and jumped to the returning warriors. The girl followed cautiously behind like a cat. In the girl's opinion, the two-headed dragon was scarier than even that blind swordsman who was really mean when she accidentally disturbed his one-leg meditation by tripping into him in the woods. The night elves were talking excitedly but grimly about a legion of demons, who must had joined forces with the undead creeps to come after them from across the ocean. The girl thought she had seen many strange things since the dead started to rise, but now even demons? Why, she would not be surprised anymore if she woke up the next day to see humans marrying orcs! Their Priestesses and Keeper of the Grove came over to address their sisters and to heal the big dragon. The half deer turned around suddenly and almost knocked her over. She led the girl away from the crowd to a tree cave in which they rested. Juillas lowered and crawled awkwardly in with her long, stiff limbs. She told the girl to wait outside, and came back out moments later with a small leather sheath attached to a leather belt. "This is a short knife we night elves use," she explained to the girl in common language. She took one hand of the girl in her own, and placed the elven short knife in it with her other hand. "Hold fast to it. We are leaving soon, for war. There might not be a safe place to hide, and I might not be able to protect you very well."

As the girl watched the usually airy dryad trudge seriously back to the night elf assembly, a sudden hand on her shoulder nearly made her heart drop out of her mouth. She jerked around to see the grinning face of Merilin. "You can't use that," she said in elvish, ignoring the fact that she was likely not understood. Merilin believed compassion was an international language. "Why, I can hold you at arm's length and you will never touch me even with that little blade of your Mommy's," said the hooky playing archer. Almost all the other night elves were gathered around their Priestesses to hear about their plans. The girl glanced to see if Dulinn was around, ready to whack. Nope. Figured. "What is a small stature warrior like you shall do, hmm?" the elf continued. The girl frowned, though she mentally admitted the archer had a point, and trouble wrote itself all over her face. Seeing that, Merilin grinned even more, and pulled out something from under her violet cloak. "Ta-da!"

It was a children's set of bow and arrows.

"I made them!" Merilin said smugly. "Get them _before_ they get to you, I say! Now, I shall show you exactly how to use them. The conference? Oh my sister is in there somewhere. She will tell me everything later. You just come with me…"

* * *

Nahele: "forest"

* * *

Author's Notes:

"What happened before?"

If that's what came to mind when you see this update, though I doubt anyone from that long ago will come back to notice, read on. When I started writing this, it was a bad, bad time. I was in the middle of undergrad and growing depression. At the time I didn't know I had depression, just that I kept feeling down all the time. Very down. It had me like a life-suckin' parasite, and soon I was locking myself in my dorm and despising doing anything, including writing. I writ because it was fun, when I became like that nothing, absolutely nothing, was fun anymore. I put everything I've got into graduating on time _without_ losing my scholarship, and getting a hold on my crumbling self. It seems that depression is a nasty thing to get, one that leaves clear marks and taints, and, like weeds, always there ready to bounce back to life. Some other damned things happened as well besides the D. All in all, it's been messy and rocky, but that's life for a lot of us. Now I'll try to develop this again and bring it to a rounded closure. The me in real life is, however, clipped on to a handfull of "jobs", for lack of a better word right now, pulling me in 4 different directions. In other words, this will grow slowly, but, hopefully, steadily. I urge you then, my generous readers, to expect less and so avoid disappointment. _Merci beaucoup!_


End file.
